(Topic ID: 278062)

Tool question of the day - Pin Vise

By xsvtoys

3 years ago



Topic Stats

  • 10 posts
  • 6 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 3 years ago by chad
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    #1 3 years ago

    I want to get a Pin Vise, does anyone have any favorites/recommendations/advice? I have not used one before, but I have some projects where I think I can really use one. Projects are things such as drilling small holes in mostly plastic materials.

    I'd like to get a good one (or, the best one) vs. going cheap, if there is a significant difference that makes it worth it. There are tons of them on Amazon and such, but I don't know enough to distinguish what's good vs. what's bad. But I am confident Pinsiders will know!

    I did do some research, it seems that the brand Starrett is considered top of the line. They do cost quite a bit more than the generic cheapo ones. If they are worth it as far as quality, function, and longevity that's OK with me.

    #2 3 years ago

    PIN VISE

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    #3 3 years ago

    Hah, I already have one of those for clamping circuit boards.

    #4 3 years ago

    Out of curiosity, what uses a dual battery board?

    #5 3 years ago

    I grabbed a small vise from harbor freight. It's been working for me so far.

    #6 3 years ago

    Obviously many people don't know what a pin vice is/does. The Starrett would be awesome to have. I have had several different cheap Chinese ones and they seem to work ok. My issue with the cheap ones, is many time the drill bit is not held in the center of the vice due to poor manufacturing.

    #7 3 years ago
    Quoted from 85Txaggie:

    Obviously many people don't know what a pin vice is/does. The Starrett would be awesome to have. I have had several different cheap Chinese ones and they seem to work ok. My issue with the cheap ones, is many time the drill bit is not held in the center of the vice due to poor manufacturing.

    Oh, I completely missed that--I thought he meant a regular bench vise for pinball stuff (ie, pinball vise). Starrett has both bench vises and pin vises when I looked them up.

    Sorry, I don't have any helpful feedback on a pin vise.

    #8 3 years ago
    Quoted from 85Txaggie:

    Obviously many people don't know what a pin vice is/does. The Starrett would be awesome to have. I have had several different cheap Chinese ones and they seem to work ok. My issue with the cheap ones, is many time the drill bit is not held in the center of the vice due to poor manufacturing.

    This is exactly what I don’t want. There is nothing worse than a cheap tool that just makes your job more difficult. Over the years I have learned that if you spend some extra money on a tool, it can pay it back many times over by making your work go smooth and easy. I was pretty sure the cheapo ones that pop up on Amazon were going to be somewhat crappy.

    These pin vices are commonly used to manually drill a very small hole. Probably not something that would be used much for pinball work, more for scale modeling and that sort of thing. I didn’t even make the connection that the word pin applies to pinball also and that might have caused confusion.

    I have been doing some research about these tools. They are sort of like taking a step down in size from a typical Dremel tool. Technically you would use a pin vise more like a typical vise, to hold something still (which is very tiny). A pin chuck would be more properly used to drill a hole. The terms tend to get used interchangeably. There are different arrangements for attaching the little drill bits such as a collet or a chuck.

    This discussion thread from a forum of model ship builders is an interesting read. Now here’s a bunch of people that need to make tiny holes. And they are into their pin vises and pin chucks.

    https://modelshipworld.com/topic/21213-pin-vice-recommendations/

    #9 3 years ago
    Quoted from chad:

    Out of curiosity, what uses a dual battery board?

    They are sold for Williams Sys3-11 systems(maybe others). I have used 2, both on Sys 11b games. Well, I use the single battery version, that is. The dual battery makes replacement a snap without losing settings/scores, even if the game is off. I don't mind sticking my hand in a powered up machine, so I just opted for singles.
    Here's one listing for one: ebay.com link: Franks Battery Board Williams Bally WPC pinballs Pro Black Edition CR2032

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